NOTE: This site is no longer (and hasn't been for quite some time) updated. But please feel free to make as much use of the stuff you find here as possible!

This is a web page dedicated to users of the Macintosh Emulation software
ShapeShifter, and as well now for users of Fusion. This site originated
from Colin Thompson's now long defunct Amiga Alley web site.

I will do my best to maintain this site and keep it as up to date as
possible (where time permits). Over time, the graphics of this page may
change, so might the layout.

If you have an Emulator-specific inquiry I would recommend going to a newsgroup like comp.sys.amiga.emulation.

Current Mac Emulation News:

NEWS FLASH:

MacOnLinux and Basilisk II

MacOnLinux is a Macintosh emulator for Linux based PowerPC Machines including the AmigaOne, those with a PowerPC based machine interested in emulating a modern PPC Mac should check it out.

Basilisk II is still around as well, and is still a 68k emulator, but now exists on Mac OSX as well as the Amiga, Windows, and UNIX/Linux and BeOS. The website for that is here. The last release of Basilisk II (for the Amiga and other platforms) being V0.9-1!

ShapeShifter 3.11

This is the final release (ever?) for this Amiga Mac 68k Emulator. New features being: Fixed MacOS 8 Finder file copy bug, and Disabled 68060 Super Bypass mode because of a CPU bug that is triggered by MacOS 8. You can find it still over at the ShapeShifter Website

Microcode Solutions has just announced a trial pre-ordering for a PowerPC/PowerMac
version of their Macintosh Emulator Fusion (and a PowerPC version of their PC
emulator PCx). They need 500 pre-orders for it to happen. The price is
far from being cheap (has any emulator ever been THIS expensive befor), but
considering for the price it gives you, you can run OS 8.6 and all PowerMac
and ClassicMac applications in existance. To check out more informatiton
and to make your pre-order click here.

ShapeShifter 3.10 out

Once again the author of the marvellous ShapeShifter, Christian Bauer, has released
what looks to be the last update of his Macintosh Emulator ShapeShifter for the Amiga.
Fear not though, as he is combining his BeOS and AmigaOS coding abilities to bring to
you, a multi-platform Macintosh emulator, which I am sure will only result in further
development of this emulator over time. (More on this later) The biggest two pieces
of news which come with this release is the emulator is now completely free.
The other big bit of news is it now finally support Mac OS 8 (a 1mb ROM is required
to use OS 8 though). And finally, one other bit of good news for graphic card owners,
Picasso96 PIP (15 bit screens) is now used in "Amiga Window" mode when available.

ShapeShifter Replacement - Basilisk II

From the author of ShapeShifter comes the multi-platform Macintosh emulator
called Basilisk II, an Open Source 68k Mac emulator for the Amiga, BeOS,
Unix, and Windows. You can find it's homepage
here.

To download Basilisk II V0.5 (25/4/99) source and AmigaOS/BeOS executables
directly from this page, click
here
(935k). For the moment though I would recommend people use ShapeShifter over
this version. As this is currently an Alpha-stage emulator only.

PowerMac Emulation?

One thing many an Amiga PowerPC user has been craving and asking for, for
a while now has been a PowerMacintosh emulator for the Amiga. At first a
survey was put together to ask for ShapeShifter to be ported to PPC, then
the authors of Fusion were asked the same. Fusion's authors commented that
they would love to do the port, but those who made the decisions decided
it to be unviable (although it is presumable that they were not really
too enthused on any further Amiga products, so it would've taken alot more
than economically feasible number to make it happen).

...And there was light?

Well maybe. From the author of ShapeShifter comes SheepShaver (yes, the
names do get more bizzare). A PowerMac emulator BeOS/PPC and soon LinuxPPC.
Those Amigans running LinuxPPC on their Amiga can look foward to PowerMac
emulation in the near future. But the question remains, what of a port to
AmigaOS? Well hopefully in time this may happen. If you would like to see
this happen, I suggest you visit the
SheepShaver Home Page, and e-mail
the author stateing you want it ported to the Amiga.

Older News:

FUSION 2 Available

FUSION, another Macintosh Emulator for the Amiga from the makers of
the old Emplant Macintosh Hardware based Emulators and the hardware
free versions of Emplant, Emplant 1200 and Emplant Lite, have released
this new emulator which claims to do alot of things ShapeShifter 3.9
doesn't, including support for MacOS 8.
(Although Shapeshifter 3.9's read me DOES state MacOS8 support WILL
come later). This right now I would call the leading emulator out
there for those willing to spend the extra dollars, but ShapeShifter
still remains the best value for money.

Fusion is by Microcode Solutions.

If you have a question about it I suggest you visit the
Blittersoft Fusion Home Page
which includes more in-depth information available as well as FAQ's
and other information.

ShapeShifter News:

Version 3.9 is now available.

Although Fusion has had numerous updates since the release of
ShapeShifter 3.8 and in general probably still remains superior
this releases comes as welcome to all existing ShapeShifter
users out there. The changes in this release include few, yet
handy changes:
* Can boot from CD-ROM
* FileDisks are faster
* Some fixes in the serial and CD-ROM drivers
* Ethernet packets are always padded to 60 bytes

Version 3.8 is now available.

I do know that the Mac OS8 cannot be used with SS yet. Don't try. OS8,
when booting looks to see what system and processor you have. When
it sees IIci, and an 040, it thinks this is impossible, so it stops.

I have heard that Christian is working on a fix for this. As I
understand the process, some flags need to be reset... Wait for the
fix.

Jean Klos is changing servers now. He has no WWW site at the moment.
However, you can still get to his files via F T P

Other News:
Those of us lucky enough to own a PowerPC Amiga will in the future
be able to run PowerMac and 68k Macintosh Applications and Games
through Fusion and possibly Shapeshifter. Right now though those of
you with a PowerPC should check out Aminet for a range of
PowerPC utilities, including a MacHQX archiver utility made specifically
for PowerPC Amigas.

War has broken out. The battle field is Video Drivers. The last
battle has not been fought, but the contestants are slugging it out
daily. The winners are you and I. Savage and TurboEVD have new
versions out now. Try them both. I ran Speedometer on both of the
under identical conditions. They are the SAME! - regardless of the
hype you read in their docs:) Both are very good. Here's the
Speedometer Test . The biggest
difference seems to be that Savage has a 15 bit mode and TurboEVD
doesn't (yet). The author tells me he is working on a 15 bit display
along with a MUI prefs editor.

UnOfficial ShapeShifter Site
Extensive site, with downloadable files and documentation.
You can download SSBootFile1 from this site. (Mac OS 7.0.1) and 7.5 Bootfiles (this version
will require you to have a license though).